Nintendo Dream Interviews Nintendo's Satoru Iwata

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The Japanese magazine presses Nintendo's director to relieve doubts of a delay and more.

By IGN Staff

The most recent issue of Japanese magazine, Nintendo Dream, featured an interview with Nintendo's director, Satoru Iwata. Naturally Nintendo Dream pressed the director to demystify the company's plans for GameCube. Little was revealed, but it still makes for an interesting read. The most notable comments suggest that the final design of the controller is still being slightly tweaked and that Nintendo is still actively researching network gaming. Following is an abbreviated list of the most important points revealed by Iwata-san:

GameCube is still scheduled to be out in July 2001. Iwata-san even laughed at the fact that analysts suggest GameCube is way behind schedule.

Many details about GameCube will not be discussed until closer to launch. Nintendo feels their strength is in the software they have, and for that reason it must be kept secret. Iwata-san gladly admitted there is no profit in selling hardware. He said Nintendo is sure their competent hardware helps, but it is the software that attracts consumers.

Miyamoto is so dedicated to GameCube that he refused to get away from work for even a day. This is also due to all the pressure being placed on him.

Miyamoto and Nintendo work on software until the last minute, sometimes until the very last day something has to be submitted for production. Nintendo doesn't want to reveal anything too early in the event that something changes.

Iwata-san sees no problems in quantity of titles or variety.

Nintendo is committed to upholding the promise that the GameCube hardware is easy to develop for.

GameCube will be playable at this year's E3.

Nintendo is obsessed with controllers and constantly is redesigning them, but thinks that's why their controllers receive so much praise. Iwata-san confirmed the GCN controller is still being tweaked.

Nintendo thinks there are many hurdles to overcome in regards to network gaming, but feels that it has a great appeal.

The canned project, Mother 3 (Earthbound 64), is currently not being worked on and isn't on anyone's "to-do" list.

And, finally, Iwata ended by saying that he thought Nintendo's double dose of Game Boy Advance and GameCube will draw a lot of new customers. Nintendo of America's vice president of marketing, George Harrison, seems to believe the same thing. They feel Game Boy Advance is a Trojan horse for GameCube. By creating software that interacts cross-platform Nintendo plans to create a bigger demand for its home console. But only time will tell the true story.